Increasing The Consumer Buying Power in Malaysia

Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati told Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that India needs to increase buying power by spending more and reduce the amount of current balance. The reason is simply because that saving is a sin and a spending is a virtue.

Although we are taught the other way round, the reality is that there are two main reasons behind the famous saying. First of all, is that a nation cannot progress without spending and secondly, savings forms a part of the nation's current account balance.

Despite having the largest current account balance, alongside Japan and India, the Chinese economy remains in a slump simply because of the current balance. The big amount of balance has made these three nations as a shopkeeper financier to the United States. Of all the 163 countries the United States has a red margine of current account balance. How they have a red margine and still being the world's number 1 economic nation is because they have been living on borrowing the reserves that we nations have stocked up.

Asians like ourselves tend to save and do not spend so much as the Americans do but in the end, the economic position of a country is weak. The Americans spend what is attractive to them via the imports from other countries.

This is the rank of countries in terms of account balance:

Rank Country Current account balance (million US$)
1 People's Republic of China (PRC) 179,100
2 Japan 174,400
3 Germany 134,800
4 Russia 105,300
5 Saudi Arabia 103,800
6 Norway 63,330
7 Switzerland 50,440
8 Netherlands 50,170
9 Kuwait 40,750
10 Singapore 35,580
11 Venezuela 31,820
12 Sweden 28,610
13 United Arab Emirates 26,890
14 Algeria 25,800
15 Hong Kong 20,900
16 Canada 20,560
17 Malaysia 17,860
18 Libya 14,500
19 Brazil 13,500
20 Iran 13,130
21 Nigeria 12,590
22 Qatar 12,510
23 Taiwan 9,700
24 Finland 8,749
25 Iraq 8,134
26 Angola 7,700
27 Oman 7,097
28 Belgium 6,925
29 Austria 5,913
30 Argentina 5,810
31 Chile 5,063
32 Denmark 4,941
33 Philippines 4,900
34 Luxembourg 4,630
35 Trinidad and Tobago 3,259
36 Azerbaijan 2,737
37 Egypt 2,697
38 Korea, South 2,000
39 Bahrain 1,999
40 Gabon 1,807
41 Botswana 1,698
42 Yemen 1,690
43 Indonesia 1,636
44 Peru 1,515
45 Israel 1,643
46 Uzbekistan 1,410
47 Burma 1,247
48 Republic of the Congo 1,215
49 Vietnam 1,029
50 Ecuador 727
51 Bolivia 688
52 Papua New Guinea 661
53 Namibia 572
54 Ivory Coast 460
55 Cameroon 419
56 Morocco 389
57 Bangladesh 339
58 Turkmenistan 321.2
59 Equatorial Guinea 175
60 British Virgin Islands 134.3 (1999)
61 Kazakhstan 113
62 Cook Islands 26.67 (2005)
63 Palau 15.09 (2004)
64 Tuvalu 2.323 (1998)
65 Samoa -2.428 (2004)
66 Tonga -4.321 (2005)
67 Comoros -17 (2005)
68 Kiribati -19.87 (2004)
69 Swaziland -23.13
70 São Tomé and Pr íncipe -24.4
71 Vanuatu -28.35 (2003)
72 Federated States of Micronesia-34.3 (2005)
73 Anguilla -42.87 (2003)
74 Cape Verde -44.43
75 The Gambia - 54.61
76 Burundi -57.84
77 Haiti -58..72
78 Tajikistan -73.95
79 Lesotho -75.44
80 Seychelles -78.59
81 Antigua and Barbuda -83.4 (2004)
82 Guyana - 84.3
83 Rwanda -104.1
84 Honduras -160
85 Zambia -165.4
86 Republic of Macedonia -167
87 Belize -173.4
88 Malawi -186
89 Ghana -219
90 Armenia -247.3
91 Togo -261.9
92 Zimbabwe - 264.6
93 Kyrgyzstan -287.3
94 Paraguay -300
95 Chad -324.1
96 Benin -342.7
97 Guinea -344
98 Cambodia -369
99 Mexico -400.1
100 Uganda -423
101 Eritrea -440.5
102 Mozambique -444.4
103 Fiji -465.8
104 Panama -467
105 Madagascar -504
106 Laos -404.2
107 Belarus -511.8
108 Syria -529
109 Moldova -561
110 Uruguay -600
111 Burkina Faso -604.6
112 Mauritius -651
113 Albania -679.9
114 Georgia -735
115 Tunisia -760
116 Slovenia -789.2
117 Nicaragua -883
118 Senegal -895.2
119 Thailand - 899.4
120 Tanzania -906
121 Malta -966.2
122 Jamaica -970
123 Cyprus -1,051
124 El Salvador -1,059
125 Sri Lanka -1,118
126 Kenya -1,119
127 Dominican Republic -1,124
128 Costa Rica -1,176
129 Cuba -1,218
130 Guatemala -1,533
131 Bosnia and Herzegovina -1,730
132 Estonia -1,919
133 Ukraine -1,933
134 Colombia -2,219
135 Serbia -2,451 (2005)
136 Latvia -2,538
137 Lithuania -2,572
138 Jordan -2,834
139 Croatia -2,892
140 Iceland -2,932
141 Ethiopia -3,384
142 Slovakia -3,781
143 Czech Republic -4,352
144 Sudan -4,510
145 Poland -4,548
146 Bulgaria -5,100
147 Lebanon -5,339
148 Pakistan -5,486
149 New Zealand -7,944
150 Hungary -8,392
151 Ireland -9,450
152 Romania -12,450
153 South Africa -12,690
154 Portugal -16,750
155 Greece -21,370
156 Italy -23,730
157 Turkey -25,990
158 India -26,400
159 France -38,000
160 Australia -41,620
161 United Kingdom -57,680
162 Spain -98,600
163 United States -862,300

Surprising to see Malaysia being on the top 20 of the list.

I've stumbled upon an article by Business Times Singapore that prompts of the case of strengthening the ringgit. Bank Negara cannot bow to the idea of keeping the ringgit weak as to encourage more exports to the other countries. It is a dependency that will no longer work anymore. That tends to make America spend more and more, depending on reserves of other currencies to sustain themselves.

The solution to improve Malaysian economy is there:

1. Reduce the exchange rate of the ringgit to 2.5 (as pre-1997 rates)
2. Reduce the import duties of all goods - particularly on cars, electrical items.
3. Encourage buying of items like cars, computers and those that they wish to do so.

The Customs department and the Finance ministry must straight away forget about dilly delay of those things and start implementing those measures. Retaining the OPR rate at 2% will not help much.

Abdullah Badawi once said of increasing prices to reduce subsidies is wrong. That is a prescription of the economic hitman out to make Malaysia owe money to agencies like IMF / World Bank.

Full article below:

Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also Japan exports far more
than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over 100 billions. Yet
Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.

Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports. Has an
annual trade deficit of over $400 billion. Yet, the American economy is
considered strong and trusted to get stronger.

But where from do Americans get money to spend?

They borrow from Japan, China and even India.
Virtually others save for the US to spend. Global savings are mostly
invested in US, in dollars.

India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US
securities. China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities. Japan's
stakes in US securities is in trillions.

Result:

The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. So, as the world saves for
the US, Americans spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going,
that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit $180
billion every quarter, which is $2 billion a day, to the US!

A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in
China, or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what
China has invested in US.

The same is the case with India. We have invested in US over $50 billion.
But the US has invested less than $20 billion in India.

Why the world is after US?

The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. In fact
they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US
spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US. So US imports more
than what it exports year after year.

The result:

The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening
culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to feed on US
consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the world
provides the money.

It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the
customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer will not buy, the shop
won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the
lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper financier.

Who is America's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan of course. Yet it's
Japan which is regarded as weak. Modern economists complain that Japanese do
not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to spend, the Japanese
government exerted itself, reduced the savings rates, even charged the
savers.

Even then the Japanese did not spend (habits don't change, even with taxes,
do they?).. Their traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2 trillions,
about three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the strength
of Japan, has become its pain.

Hence, what is the lesson?

That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just
spend, but borrow and spend.

Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist in the US, told
Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save.. Ask them to spend, on imported
cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This will put India on a growth
curve. This is one of the reason for MNC's coming down to India, seeing the
consumer spending.

'Saving is sin, and spending is virtue.'

But before you follow this neo economics, get some fools to save so that you
can borrow from them and spend!!!